Pedestrian bridge vibration monitoring using a wireless MEMS accelerometer board

In recent years, growing interest has been aroused by the possibility of monitoring wirelessly the dynamic response and the state of aging infrastructures. Micro Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) based equipment has revealed to be an emerging technology for vibration monitoring of large-sized civil structures such as bridges and buildings. Once problems related to the MEMS-based sensors resolution at very low-frequency and low-amplitude vibrations were solved, they have provided a low-cost and small alternative to the traditionally used wire-based devices. In this study, a newly designed wireless, MEMS-based, accelerometer board (Acceleration Evaluator, ALE) is used as stand-alone sensor for carrying out a vibration analysis on a pedestrian deck-stiffened arch bridge. Through an extensive series of quasi-static and dynamic tests, it is proved that the developed sensor board can be used as reliable devices to obtain measurements comparable with those obtained when equivalent-accuracy devices (i.e. Integral Electronics PiezoElectric (IEPE) accelerometers) are used for modal frequencies and dynamic parameters change analyses and damage detection.